Turkish Constitutional Court received 200,000 individual applications in last six years

ANKARA

The Constitutional Court received 191,371 individual applications between 2012 and June 30 of this year. 

The court broke down the figures according to the number of applications made per year. In 2012, it received 1,342 individual applications, while it received a whopping 80,756 in 2016, a year marked by Turkey’s military coup attempt. In 2017, the number of individual applications fell to 40,530. And between Jan. 1 and June 30 of this year, the figure was 17,892.

Of the total number of applications between 2012 and 2018, some 60 percent of the applicants said their right to a fair trial had been breached, 13 percent said there had been a breach of their property rights as guaranteed in the constitution, and 9 percent said they had been discriminated against.

The Constitutional Court has settled 149,613 of the cases so far, corresponding to 78 percent of the total applications. Some 41,758 applications were still waiting to be concluded as of June 30.

The court found 82 percent of the settled cases (123,245) as “inadmissible.” It found that “at least one [constitutional] right was breached” in just 2 percent of the total settled applications, referring to a figure of 2,740.

The top court said the majority of the decisions it has handed down regarding violations of constitutional rights relates to the right to a fair trial.

Of the 2,853 violation rulings, 76 percent (2,182) was related to violation of the applicant’s right to receive a fair trial; 5 percent (133) related to a violation of the right to property; 4 percent (112) related to a violation of the right to protection of individual and family life; 4 percent (103) related to a violation of the right to personal liberty and safety; 3 percent (84) related to a violation of the right of freedom of expression; 2 percent (64) related to violation of the right to life; and 2 percent (59) violation of the right for prohibition of torture.

The number of rulings handed down confirming the violation of constitutional rights increased gradually over the period of 2012-2017, according to the report. This figure was recorded at 28 in 2013, 378 in 2014, 544 in 2015, 771 in 2016, and 922 in 2017. During the period of Jan. 1 – June 30 of this year, on the other hand, this figure was recorded as 210.